Stephen Fry: Willem And Frieda: Defying The Nazis
Channel 4 | ★★★★✩

The problem with presenter-led documentaries is that the subject of the documentary can be eclipsed by the presenter and this is rather the case with Channel 4’s documentary Stephen Fry: Willem & Frieda — Defying the Nazis.

That said, the story obviously resonates on a personal level with Fry, who is both Jewish and gay, and it is certainly one that deserves to be told to a wide audience.

Fry is right to point out that the names of Willem Arondeus and Frieda Belinfante are little known outside the Netherlands, and that they should be better known.

Arondeus and Belinfante were Dutch homosexuals who took a stand against the Nazis after the German invasion of the Netherlands in May 1940 by creating forged identity cards that ended up saving thousands of Jews.

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Fry in the documentary (Atticus Film, Channel 4)

In the course of their resistance work during which they risk their lives, they become close friends, though I suspect the all-night parties at which booze was quaffed and drugs taken, may have also played a part in bringing them closer.

As we learn about their incredible wartime adventures, including an arson attack on the Nazi records office, it becomes apparent that courage doesn’t tend to come from nowhere, it is something that is generally built upon.

In Willem’s case, it was the painter coming out to his family at the age of 17 and living openly with another man thereafter. For Frieda, a cellist, it was becoming the first woman in Europe to lead an orchestra.

With homosexuals being interned in Germany there’s a suggestion of self-preservation, more so with Frieda’s father being Jewish, but unable to ask directly, much is left to supposition.

Fortunately, a wonderful old interview with Frieda exists, her charisma and inner steel emanating from the screen, but I partly wish we could have just stuck with that, especially as with not much remaining from Willem’s life apart from a few photographs and his art, it’s left to Fry to fill out the rest.

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Fry in Amsterdam (Atticus Film, Channel 4)

The act of sabotage, destroying the personal records of the population necessary so the fake numbers on the forged identity cards would work, that led to Willem’s execution along with 11 of his conspirators, and Frieda hiding disguised as a man before escaping, is a story more told than seen, and suffers for it.

We also don’t get to fully appreciate the impact of their heroism, for whilst we are repeatedly told it led to saving thousands of Jews, it’s never properly explained how that happened, as Jews are relegated here to a background setting for the theme Fry wants to focus on.

There’s hardly a subtle agenda at work here, and whilst mirrored by Willem’s call to tell the world that homosexuals are not cowards, and with the somewhat clichéd invocation of Martin Niemöller’s “First they came…”, the documentary risks turning Willem and Frieda’s example of heroism into something preachy, rather than inspiring.

Stephen Fry: Willem and Frieda – Defying the Nazis is available on All 4.